jabber
/ˈd͡ʒæbə(ɹ)/ verb, noun
Forms jabbers jabbering jabbered
- verb (intransitive) To talk rapidly, indistinctly, or unintelligibly; to utter gibberish or nonsense.
- verb (transitive) To utter rapidly or indistinctly; to gabble.
- noun Rapid or incoherent talk, with indistinct utterance; gibberish.
- noun One who or that which jabs.
- noun (informal) One who administers a hypodermic injection.
- noun A kind of hand-operated corn planter.
Synonyms
Etymology
From Middle English jaberen, javeren, chaveren (“to chatter, babble”), dissimilated forms of jablen, chavelen (“to jabber”), from Middle English chavel ("jaw"; > modern English jowl). Equivalent to jowl + -er (iterative suffix).
Webster’s 1913
- verb To talk rapidly, indistinctly, or unintelligibly; to utter gibberish or nonsense; to chatter. Swift.
- verb To utter rapidly or indistinctly; to gabble; as, to jabber French. Addison.
- noun Rapid or incoherent talk, with indistinct utterance; gibberish.
- noun One who jabbers.
Etymology [Cf. Gibber, Gabble.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “jabber”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details